ACHL Division 2
St. Paul’s 2-14 Clooney Gael 4-17
Clooney Gaels kept pace with Tir na nOg at the top of division 2 when they travelled to Shaw’s Road on Sunday and recorded a nine point win over St. Paul’s.
First half goals from James O’Connell and Owen Neeson edged the visitors 2-8 to 1-8 ahead at the interval with the St. Paul’s goal coming from Caolan O’Duibhfinn and it left it all still to play for in the second half.
Colla McDonnell got in for a third Clooney goal, six minutes into the second half but Sean Munce replied with a second goal for the ‘Hoops’ in the 17th minute to keep them within striking distance.
The visitors pushed on however and James O’Connell fired home their fourth goal of the evening in injury time to secure another good victory for an Ahoghill side containing several youngsters in their line-up.
Ronan Graham 0-5, James O’Connell, Owen Neeson and Martin Graham were the Clooney first half point scorers with goal scorer O’Duibhfinn accounting for 0-3 of St. Paul’s points and Sean Munce 0-3, Lorcan Phillips and Daire Stevens all on target for the Shaw’s Road side.
The ‘Gael’s’ came flying out of the blocks at the start of the second half and hit 1-4 in the opening six minutes with Colla McDonnell setting them on their way and Ronan Graham 0-2 and James O’Connell adding to McDonnell’s goal.
Suddenly the visitors lead had moved from three to ten points and while the home side matched their visitors for the remainder of the game, they never looked like overturning that lead.
They did get it back to six at one stage thanks to Munce’s goal in the 17th minute and points from O’Duibhfinn, Sean Muce, Declan Chapman 0-2, Conall Finnegan and Lorcan Phillips but the Ahoghill men were always able to respond.
Dan O’Neill, James O’Connell 0-2 f’s, Owen Neeson and Soda Graham kept the scoreboard ticking before James O’Connell put the icing on a solid performance with that fourth goal in the 32nd minute
St. Paul’s: 1 Chris Murray 2 Tiarnan Auld, 3 Frankie Sewell, 4 Marcas Munce, 5 Ciaran O’Carroll, 6 Daire Stevenson, 7 Declan Quinn, 8 Sean Lawell, 9 Conall Finnegan, 10 Caolan O’Duibhfinn, 11, Declan Chapman, 12Lorcan Phillips, 13 Sean Munce, 14 Stephen Rooney, 15 Paul Donnelly
Clooney Gaels: Aiden Graham, Conal Walls Paddy Dougan Joe Logan Harry O’Donnell James Magee Charlie McCloskey Dan O’Neill Conor Crossey Donal Graham Ronan Graham James O’Connell Colla McDonnell Martin Graham Owen Neeson
Subs:Eoin Graham for Martin Graham, Noah Friel for Donal Graham, Oisin Kelly for Joe Logan, Ben Friel for Harry O’Donnell, Michael Martin for Owen Neeson
Referee: Fionntan McCotterr (Sarsfields)